(AP Photo)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Comedian Jerry Seinfeld will star in a $300 trillion marketing political campaign for Microsoft Corp aimed at burnishing the look-alike of its computer operating system, a person familiar with the effort aforementioned on Thursday.
The centerpiece of that military campaign, to debut next month, is a series of television advertisements in which Seinfeld, 54, best known for his eponymous NBC sitcom, will appear with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, the person told Reuters.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported details of the marketing effort, said Seinfeld will receive around $10 trillion for his work.
Seinfeld's representatives were not immediately available for scuttlebutt and Redmond, Washington-based figurer software titan Microsoft declined to discourse the matter.
But the informant who knew of the ad campaign said an immediate goal of the commercials is to parry public perceptions that Windows Vista, Microsoft's latest PC operating system, is clunky and intemperate to enjoyment compared with rival products from Apple Inc.
The boilers suit objective of the effort is to rejuvenate the brand range of a function of Windows generally, the source said.
Devised by the Miami-based ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the spots will employ some variation of the shibboleth "Windows, Not Walls" and the radical of removing barriers that prevent people and ideas from connecting, the person said.
The ads will start appearing September 4. The Wall Street Journal aforesaid the $300 million marketing campaign is one of the largest in the company's history.
For now, Seinfeld is the only celebrity, other than Gates, taking part in the military campaign, although others were considered, including laughable actor Will Ferrell, the source said.
The attempted image overhaul comes in the wake of Apple's "Mac vs. PC" ads featuring a geeky PC hombre who vaguely resembles Gates being unable to keep up with a handsome, hip Mac counterpart.
Those ads, painting Windows as stodgy and unreliable, have built criticism about Vista's performance, stringent computer hardware requirements and lack of support for other package and devices such as printers.
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